Elevate Uranium is on track with the construction of the U-pgrade™ demonstration plant to process ore at the Koppies project, planned for completion in mid-2025.
U-pgrade™ is Elevate’s wholly owned patented beneficiation process that was developed on ore from the Marenica Uranium Project.
The plant is designed to confirm, at a scalable size and operating continuously, that the U-pgrade™ process can remove gangue waste material and concentrate the uranium mineral into a low-mass, high-grade concentrate before leaching.
This trial is expected to de-risk the U-pgrade™ process for commercialisation.
The results will guide the design of a full-scale commercial U-pgrade™ processing plant.
The plant was constructed in Perth, and many were freighted overseas for operation.
The plant will undergo factory acceptance testing in Perth, be containerised, shipped to Namibia, reassembled, and used to process at least 60 tons of Koppies ore.
U-pgrade™ is a potential industry-leading and economically transformative beneficiation process for upgrading surficial uranium ores.
Elevate Uranium developed the plant using ore from its Marenica project, with subsequent testwork conducted on samples from various other uranium resources.
The benchscale testwork on Marenica Uranium proved that the plant concentrates uranium by a factor of up to 50 and increased the Marenica Project ore grade from 93 ppm to approximately 5,000 ppm U3O8.
The plant rejects about 98% of the mass before leaching while producing a high-grade concentrate in a low mass of around 2% (leach feed).
Additionally, the plant rejects acid consumers and potentially reduces operating and capital costs by about 50% compared to conventional processing.
Beyond its application at the Marenica Uranium Project, bench-scale testing has shown that surficial secondary uranium deposits in Namibia and Australia suit the U-pgrade™ process.
Elevate Uranium managing director Murray Hill says the plant aims to confirm, at a scalable size and operating continuously, that the U-pgrade™ beneficiation process can remove gangue waste material and concentrate the uranium mineral into a low-mass, high-grade concentrate before leaching.
Hill says once built, the plant will undergo factory acceptance testing in Perth, be containerised, shipped to Namibia, re-assembled, and used to process at least 60 tons of Koppies ore.
According to Hill, the results from the demonstration plant operation will inform the design of a full-scale commercial U-pgrade™ processing plant.
“Our metallurgical team’s recent visit to Namibia was productive, and we are moving forward with the necessary approvals.
“We are excited about the potential of this demonstration plant to validate our U-pgrade™ process for commercialisation of the Koppies Uranium Project,” Hill says.
Fremantle Metallurgy was awarded the construction contract due to its experience designing and constructing similar-sized demonstration and pilot plants for clients ranging from BHP to junior resource companies.
The Fremantle Metallurgy team assessed potential sites in Namibia to locate the plant in February 2025.
The team is working through the approval process with the relevant regulatory authorities.
The team also met with contractors to assess available support for the plant operations.
